Adaption processes in team decisionmaking and coordination

Summary form only given. A series of findings and hypotheses derived from six years of model-based experimental research in team decision making and coordination are reported. The main hypothesis is that team coordination strategies evolve from explicit coordination under low workload conditions to implicit coordination as workload increases. Explicit coordination involves the transfer of information and resources in response to requests, and the use of communication messages to coordinate actions. Implicit coordination relies on predictions of the information and resource needs of the other team members as obtained through the exercise of a mental model of the other decision-maker, or via the exercise of a common mental image of the situation. As the load increases further, coordination strategies shift to the use of prescripted plans and, in hierarchical teams, to leader-directed coordination strategies. A set of measures that could detect changes in decision-making and coordination strategies in a team and a framework to study adaptation processes in teams are proposed